Tag Archives: fog

Photographs: Architecture, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: San Francisco, Photographs: Structures and Objects

Golden Gate and Bay Bridges, Morning Haze

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Golden Gate and Bay Bridges, Morning Haze
Golden Gate and Bay Bridges, Morning Haze

Golden Gate and Bay Bridges, Morning Haze. San Francisco Bay, California. February 5, 2011. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Black and white photograph of Golden Gate Bridge north tower, the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge, and the East Bay Hills in morning haze.

I sometimes enjoy playing the juxtaposition game, going up into the Marin Headlands and using a long lens to juxtapose elements of the Golden Gate Bridge with other elements of the landscape, human and natural, of San Francisco Bay. One of the most iconic examples of such photographs is the one that many have shot (including me!) that centers the tip of the Transamerica building within a frame formed by the north tower of the bridge. But there are many other possibilities that might be at least as interesting, and which may depend more on the changing and often very interesting conditions of atmosphere and light over the bay.

This photograph was made from a point very close to that from which the Transamerica building photograph can be made, but a bit higher on the road up into the headlands. When I arrived just before dawn in the general area there were quite a few other photographers who I presume were there to photograph the dawn scene. (This is a difficult task, as it requires you to shoot essentially directly into the sun if you want San Francisco in your shot.) I was surprised when essentially all of the other photographers packed up and left a few minutes after the sun came up! (In their defense, it was windy up there – so windy that it made shooting with a long lens quite a challenge!) The sunrise wasn’t all that amazing, at least not if you know this area pretty well. But the low haze/fog over the east bay hills and some overhead clouds filtering the light a bit created the potential for some interesting and moody light – at least if I used a long lens to isolate small sections of the scene.

I’m almost a bit embarrassed to admit that I picked my first shooting location not based on the scene but rather on trying to avoid the wind! I went up the road to a spot where I could shoot in the lee of a hill side. After getting that out of my system, I went the other way and entered a very windy area along the road below the parking lot. I eventually found a spot that lined up the two great bridges of San Francisco Bay – the north tower of the Golden Gate Bridge in the foreground and two towers and a central span of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge in the distance, both backed by that low fog and haze and beyond the East Bay Hills.

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Text, photographs, and other media are © Copyright G Dan Mitchell (or others when indicated) and are not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: San Francisco

Alcatraz, Treasure Island, East Bay Hills

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Alcatraz, Treasure Island, East Bay Hills
Alcatraz, Treasure Island, East Bay Hills

Alcatraz, Treasure Island, East Bay Hills. San Francisco Bay, California. February 5, 2011. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Black and white photograph of San Francisco Bay with Alcatraz, Treasure Island, and the East Bay Hills beneath a morning winter sky.

On this early February day the rough plan was to head up across the Golden Gate Bridge before dawn, shoot a bit from high in the Marin Headlands as the sun rose, and then continue on to most likely shoot at Muir Woods. However, I ended up spending at least two hours shooting from the headlands, and by the time I finished I knew that the tourist hordes would be arriving at Muir Woods, so I only did a bit of additional shooting from the hills before heading back home.

This photograph was made just before I left the Marin Headlands, near the last turn before the road crosses highway 101 near the Golden Gate. It is a familiar location and I’ve photographed from here many times in the past. I don’t always stop, but if something is a bit special or unusual about the conditions I will. That was the case today as someone unusual weather conditions had left the bay mostly clear, but with a thin layer of fog over Oakland and other areas along the east side of the San Francisco Bay – and impressive high clouds were floating above. Alcatraz Island is at the left, Treasure Island and the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge are in the center, and beyond that the tops of buildings in downtown Oakland are visible against the backdrop of the East Bay hills.

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Text, photographs, and other media are © Copyright G Dan Mitchell (or others when indicated) and are not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California

Trees and Brush, Levee

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Trees and Brush, Levee
Trees and Brush, Levee

Trees and Brush, Levee. Cosumnes River Wildlife Preserve, California. January 23, 2011. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Weak sunlight breaks through Central Valley tule fog to illuminate trees and brush growing on a levee near the Cosumnes River.

This morning started out with extremely dense Central Valley tule fog – at first so thick that I more or less gave up photographing. But eventually, as usually happens, the upper layers of the fog began to thin, and some light began to filter down through the fog. By late in the morning the fog was thinning enough that very pale sunlight began to show through and softly light the dense vegetation on this levee along the edges of the Cosumnes River. This is an incredibly rich environment in the winter, especially with all of the water from winter rains and the nearby river, and the vegetation grows very thick here.

G Dan Mitchell Photography | Flickr | Twitter | Facebook | Email
Text, photographs, and other media are © Copyright G Dan Mitchell (or others when indicated) and are not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California

Bird, Flooded Fields

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Bird, Flooded Fields
Bird, Flooded Fields

Bird, Flooded Fields. Central Valley, California. January 23, 2011. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A bird wades in a flooded Central Valley winter field in front of a receding line of power poles and some farm buildings on a levee.

This is (yet another!) photograph of the flooded fields along a country road near the Cosumnes River in California’s Central Valley. I was shooting almost directly into the sun through remaining fog and haze near the middle of a winter day. The building sits on a levee between the fields and the bird was kind enough to pose for me while I made the photograph.

Given one of the subjects subject that I’ve been discussing at the blog during the past few days, it seems reasonable to point out that this image involved significant work during the post-processing phase – what we used to refer to as “the darkroom,” but which we now refer to as “photoshop.” I used a variety of techniques to push this image towards what I had in mind – a very high key interpretation that I hope evokes the sensation of looking into a backlit hazy atmosphere that is so bright that you can barely look at it. (In fact, it was very much like this when I made the photograph – as you can see it required a 1/1000 second exposure at f/8 and ISO 100. That’s bright!) In general I brought the overall brightness up to nearly pure white in the lightest portions of the image, and I employed some other techniques to lower the amount of contrast in the sky yet keep the building, the poles, and the levee fairly dark. Although all of this was accomplished in the “digital darkroom,” all of the processes are equivalent to those that might have been applied by photographers working in the traditional darkroom.

G Dan Mitchell Photography | Flickr | Twitter | Facebook | Email
Text, photographs, and other media are © Copyright G Dan Mitchell (or others when indicated) and are not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.